By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Reeds Spring played host to the Carthage Tigers and the Ozark Tigers on Tuesday night in a wrestling triangular. Carthage won both of its duals while Ozark split. Carthage easily handled the young Wolves by 69 points. The contest against Ozark was a closer match, with Carthage coming out on top, 34-26. In the final match of the night, Ozark defeated Reeds Spring, 53-21.
Leading the way for Carthage was senior Kale Schrader (220). He won last year’s state title with a perfect 54-0 record and has yet to lose this year. With the streak still intact, Schrader has his sights on another state title.
“I haven’t been challenged yet this year,” said Schrader. “I feel like if I just stay the course and keep wrestling how I have been I’ll be able to push through the tough matches. My goal is to get to the top of the podium. My coaches have really been pushing me, they get in there and wrestle with me and that really helps me out. I started the year with an injury, I was out for the first couple matches, but I’m good now. I’ve got to come in every day ready to wrestle and ready to get better. Never underestimate anybody.”
Getting points for Carthage was freshman Luke Gall (170); Gall is also undefeated this year.
“I’m 18-0 and I couldn’t expect anything less with the work I put in,” said Gall. “My goal is to place in state, at least the top four. I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. I just have to push myself.”
Carthage coach Kenny Brown was not thrilled with his team’s conditioning and it is something that he says they need to work on.
“Tonight showed that we’re still not in good enough shape,” said Brown. “Ozark really pushed us and to me, it looked like they were in better shape than us. That is something we will definitely be correcting. Granted, coming off Christmas break we didn’t have a tournament after the holiday so we had almost two and a half weeks off. We had practice but that’s not the same as competition. I may have to rethink my schedule a little bit, maybe add something back in, because I really don’t like seeing my guys basically out-worked in the third period. That’s kind of what Ozark did to us tonight. Ozark’s got a strong team, I knew going in that it was going to be a battle.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE TRIANGULAR
Coach Brown was pleased with some of his JV wrestlers wrestling in place of some of his varsity wrestlers. One match, in particular, was Brett Rockers defeating Ozark’s Riley Newsom in overtime. Rockers managed to hold off Newsom’s comeback and take the victory by two points, 14-12.
“That was a huge win,” said Brown, “especially considering that Brett was my JV 152. He had to wrestle varsity because my varsity guy didn’t make weight. For Brett to come in and win that overtime match was huge for us when it came to team score. We’ve got a big team and we’re pretty deep. We’ve got over 60 still with the team at this point in the season. It’s nice having that depth so that when life happens and 15-18 years olds screw up I’ve got somebody else willing and able to step in.”
Ozark junior Elijah Maskrod was one of the bright spots for the Tigers tonight. He wrestled up from his normal 132 weight to 138.
“There’s really not a whole lot of difference between 132 and 138, it’s really just the process of making weight. I feel a little bit stronger at 132. My first win was a pin, the second was a technical fall (17-2). Recently, my biggest point of emphasis has been aggressiveness. I really need to work on that. Especially with my last match I was just really focusing on being the aggressor, no matter what the score was. My goal is to go out there and always be fighting for the next point whether I’m ahead by five or down by five.”
Coach Todd Sundlie of Ozark thought his team got a little exposed tonight.
“We have wrestled Carthage for many, many years and it’s a good program,” said Sundlie. “It’s a good matchup, Coach Brown and I knew it was going to be a good matchup, what both teams needed. That’s why we have them on the schedule. We just didn’t wrestle very tough. Honestly, I’ve just got to say, we need to be tougher in situations and I felt like that’s how they beat us—a little bit more toughness. Kids need to find their identity and gain confidence in what they do and learn what they do well and then stick with that. We have a lot of young kids and they’re growing and gaining a lot of experience, and that’s good, but we can’t let it affect their confidence when they are challenged or defeated. We like where we’re at, though tonight we got exposed a little bit, I thought, in our toughness. We’ll deal with that in the room tomorrow.”
Reeds Spring coach Chris Lowe knew it would be a tough night for his young Wolves so their goal was to win as many individual matches as they could.
“At times we did some good things, at times we were just outclassed a little bit tonight,” said Lowe. “They were two good teams but all in all I thought we tried hard and wrestled hard. We had six openings tonight and that’s 36 points, it’s hard to come back from. We did well, though. There are some good things we did and there’s a lot for us to work on. We are really young, with lots of sophomores. We have to get better and wrestle sounder. We have to clean up a few things. Our district is brutal and that’s why our schedule is the way it is. Our thought is to wrestle the best we can and get ready for our tough district. There were some good things tonight but we also saw a lot of things we’ve got to work on.”
With the state tournament a little over a month away, Carthage is looking to improve on last year’s 10th place finish.
“I think we are ranked seventh this year,” said Brown. “If we can keep everybody healthy, get a couple of injured ones back and get our lineup exactly where we need it, I think we’ve got a shot to move up even higher. Honestly, I don’t think anybody can catch Liberty this year, they’re just loaded. With six or seven of our varsity wrestlers also on our state title winning football team, conditioning was difficult the first month of the season. We are getting ready to come into some pretty tough tournaments and conditioning will be a big factor in us winning those tournaments.”
Carthage 75 v Reeds Spring 6
113: Carlos Reyes (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
120: Tanner Russow (CARTHAGE) over Chase Johnson (REEDSPRG) (Fall 0:48)
126: Selvin Estrada (CARTHAGE) over Tyler Nance (REEDSPRG) (Fall 4:00)
132: Dagan Sappington (CARTHAGE) over Anthony Tolbert (REEDSPRG) (TF 16-1 5:59)
138: Davion King (CARTHAGE) over Easton Byrne (REEDSPRG) (Fall 5:02)
145: Eli Sneed (CARTHAGE) over Christian Beck (REEDSPRG) (Fall 5:36)
152: Jakob McCracken (REEDSPRG) over Brett Rockers (CARTHAGE) (Fall 2:26)
160: Kelten Campbell (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
170: Luke Gall (CARTHAGE) over Nicholas Rogers (REEDSPRG) (Fall 1:41)
182: Obed Gonzalez (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
195: Kanen Vogt (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
220: Kale Schrader (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
285: Alexis Vasquez (CARTHAGE) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
106: Kip Castor (CARTHAGE) over Edward `Rocky` Love (REEDSPRG) (Fall 0:34)
Carthage 34 v Ozark 26
106: Kip Castor (CARTHAGE) over (OZARK) (For.)
113: Carlos Reyes (CARTHAGE) over (OZARK) (For.)
120: Tanner Russow (CARTHAGE) over Lucas Campbell (OZARK) (MD 13-0)
126: Wyatt Snyder (OZARK) over Selvin Estrada (CARTHAGE) (Dec 9-3)
132: Braxton Strick (OZARK) over Dagan Sappington (CARTHAGE) (Dec 9-2)
138: Elijah Maskrod (OZARK) over Davion King (CARTHAGE) (Fall 5:15)
145: Clayton Moison (OZARK) over Eli Sneed (CARTHAGE) (MD 8-0)
152: Brett Rockers (CARTHAGE) over Riley Newsom (OZARK) (Dec 14-12)
160: Kelten Campbell (CARTHAGE) over Riley Sundlie (OZARK) (Dec 8-6)
170: Luke Gall (CARTHAGE) over Kale Conway (OZARK) (Dec 3-0)
182: Harper Kissee (OZARK) over Obed Gonzalez (CARTHAGE) (MD 20-12)
195: Kanen Vogt (CARTHAGE) over Braegan Patman (OZARK) (Dec 6-3)
220: Kale Schrader (CARTHAGE) over Sean Collins (OZARK) (Fall 0:38)
285: Hunter Tennison (OZARK) over Alexis Vasquez (CARTHAGE) (Fall 3:13)
Ozark 53 v Reeds Spring 21
120: Chase Johnson (REEDSPRG) over Lucas Campbell (OZARK) (SV-1 9-7)
126: Levi Maskrod (OZARK) over Tyler Nance (REEDSPRG) (Fall 3:03)
132: Anthony Tolbert (REEDSPRG) over Sean Evans (OZARK) (Fall 4:46)
138: Elijah Maskrod (OZARK) over Easton Byrne (REEDSPRG) (TF 17-2 2:00)
145: Clayton Moison (OZARK) over Christian Beck (REEDSPRG) (Fall 0:25)
152: Jakob McCracken (REEDSPRG) over Riley Newsom (OZARK) (Fall 0:51)
160: Ryan Dotson (OZARK) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
170: Harper Kissee (OZARK) over Nicholas Rogers (REEDSPRG) (Fall 2:37)
182: Colby Allen (OZARK) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
195: Braegan Patman (OZARK) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
220: Sean Collins (OZARK) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
285: Claude Virden (OZARK) over (REEDSPRG) (For.)
106: Edward `Rocky` Love (REEDSPRG) over (OZARK) (For.)
113: Double Forfeit
